Well, here goes nothing. I've officialy wrapped up my first week here in Spain, Wow. If you had told me to guess how it would be a week ago there is no way I would ever have guessed it would be so wonderful. Really please don't mind if this blog post is the most scatter brained thing you've read all year, I honestly have no idea of where to begin.
How about with my host family? Angelita is my host mom, and she lives alone, well not now that I'm here. I think she likes having me around for some company at the end of the day but at the same time there is no part of her that is lonely. Everyday her daughter Angela comes over and eats lunch here with me before she heads to work. She teaches English to young students and also taks English classes herself. She is very kindand works very hard to get me to just speak Spanish without thinking about every word I say. Possibly, no most definitly the best part of this family is Irene. Everyday Angela brings her daughter Irene over to my house so that Angelita can watch her while Angela goes to work. I get to play with her and hold her ands shes the happiest litle chubby cheeked kid I've ever met.
Angelita works very hard to only feed me food that I like and every time she makes something new she says "you can just tr it first" which is much appreciated because I feel like I can always say I don't like it. Every time I've ever traveled abroad I've been served food I don't really like. Nepal, Mexico, and Morocco weren't my ideal meals, but here I actually really like most of the food she make. Everything is fresh and flavorful, its much healthier than at home and not as heavy. One thing I've learned about Spanish cuisine in the past week is their love for olive oil, they will put it on anything, and to be honest they will drown anything in it. Last night watching her put olive oil on our salad bowl I thought she would've stopped pouring a good 73 seconds before she did. She tries to feed me a lot especially bread, she loves bread as do all Spaniards but Angelita especially, she owns a bread store a few miles from town, and from the sounds of it from everyone else in our group of students I have the freshest bread at my house.
The classes seem more or less simple. I'm taking Introduction to Literature, Advanced Linguistics, and a Modern Languages class. I have class Monday through Thursday 9 am to 11 am and then I'm done for the day. I usually go home after and eat lunch with Angela once she gets here. Things are sometimes difficult because I don't have internet access in my bedroom so I can only be in contact with people if I sit in the living room where everyone wants to speak to me in Spanish and where Irene is, who always throws fits if I don't let her play with my computer or my phone, which is not always favorable since she's you know not even one-year-old yet and is in the phase of throwing whatever she can get her hands on across the floor.
The group of students here from Ohio University is amazing. I'm already good friends with some of them. Every weekend for the most part we have free to go explore and go on European adventures. So when I arrived later than expected on Monday morning, my bags didn't. So I had to wait until Wednesday to get them. The difficult part was that no one knew what time they would be coming so I had to spend the entire day at home. Of course Wednesday was the day that everyone met up to plan excursions and trips for the weekends. So- when I showed up to class Thursday morning, showered and clean and smelling pretty, Taylor one of my already good friends here looked at me after class around 11 am and said "yeah hey want to go to Paris with us this weekend?" Because I'd already begun to feel left out, because I didn't want to miss out, because I wanted to make friends, because I didn't have other plans, because it's Paris and I'm in Spain and, because it's Paris do I even need another reason than that of course I said yes. I mean after all I went to India for a weekend once pretty much just to see the Taj Mahal, why not go to France for a weekend pretty much just to see the Eiffel Tower?
So I guess I'm a little travel rebel. But hey crap tons of euros later and here I am back in Spain able to say I've seen Paris. While we obviously didn't have time to see everything we woke up in a hostel where we got free breakfast of tea and croissants, we made it into the Catacombs after a 3 hour wait, which was absolutely crazy, shopped a little, made stops at the Louvre, Love Lock bridge where we even bought our own locks, we saw the Arc du Triumph from a distance, saw Notre Dame, had some lunch, exchanged some money and ended with a picnic under the Eiffel Tower. We rode the metro all day and never really got lost. It was absolutely crazy to be honest. We pulled it off, Paris in a day. And while yes we could have spent much more time there and actually gotten in to all of the marvelous places we visited, it was still one of the coolest prettiest most memorable places I've ever been. And while yes I still hope to go back one day and have time to spend in the Louvre and all, for a one day trip with three new friends as a 21-year-old I'd say my trip kicked some major weekend butt.
Exhausted, poor, and still lost in Toledo is how I am now. So hopefully that gives you enough background of what I'm up to! Photos to come later!
How about with my host family? Angelita is my host mom, and she lives alone, well not now that I'm here. I think she likes having me around for some company at the end of the day but at the same time there is no part of her that is lonely. Everyday her daughter Angela comes over and eats lunch here with me before she heads to work. She teaches English to young students and also taks English classes herself. She is very kindand works very hard to get me to just speak Spanish without thinking about every word I say. Possibly, no most definitly the best part of this family is Irene. Everyday Angela brings her daughter Irene over to my house so that Angelita can watch her while Angela goes to work. I get to play with her and hold her ands shes the happiest litle chubby cheeked kid I've ever met.
Angelita works very hard to only feed me food that I like and every time she makes something new she says "you can just tr it first" which is much appreciated because I feel like I can always say I don't like it. Every time I've ever traveled abroad I've been served food I don't really like. Nepal, Mexico, and Morocco weren't my ideal meals, but here I actually really like most of the food she make. Everything is fresh and flavorful, its much healthier than at home and not as heavy. One thing I've learned about Spanish cuisine in the past week is their love for olive oil, they will put it on anything, and to be honest they will drown anything in it. Last night watching her put olive oil on our salad bowl I thought she would've stopped pouring a good 73 seconds before she did. She tries to feed me a lot especially bread, she loves bread as do all Spaniards but Angelita especially, she owns a bread store a few miles from town, and from the sounds of it from everyone else in our group of students I have the freshest bread at my house.
The classes seem more or less simple. I'm taking Introduction to Literature, Advanced Linguistics, and a Modern Languages class. I have class Monday through Thursday 9 am to 11 am and then I'm done for the day. I usually go home after and eat lunch with Angela once she gets here. Things are sometimes difficult because I don't have internet access in my bedroom so I can only be in contact with people if I sit in the living room where everyone wants to speak to me in Spanish and where Irene is, who always throws fits if I don't let her play with my computer or my phone, which is not always favorable since she's you know not even one-year-old yet and is in the phase of throwing whatever she can get her hands on across the floor.
The group of students here from Ohio University is amazing. I'm already good friends with some of them. Every weekend for the most part we have free to go explore and go on European adventures. So when I arrived later than expected on Monday morning, my bags didn't. So I had to wait until Wednesday to get them. The difficult part was that no one knew what time they would be coming so I had to spend the entire day at home. Of course Wednesday was the day that everyone met up to plan excursions and trips for the weekends. So- when I showed up to class Thursday morning, showered and clean and smelling pretty, Taylor one of my already good friends here looked at me after class around 11 am and said "yeah hey want to go to Paris with us this weekend?" Because I'd already begun to feel left out, because I didn't want to miss out, because I wanted to make friends, because I didn't have other plans, because it's Paris and I'm in Spain and, because it's Paris do I even need another reason than that of course I said yes. I mean after all I went to India for a weekend once pretty much just to see the Taj Mahal, why not go to France for a weekend pretty much just to see the Eiffel Tower?
So I guess I'm a little travel rebel. But hey crap tons of euros later and here I am back in Spain able to say I've seen Paris. While we obviously didn't have time to see everything we woke up in a hostel where we got free breakfast of tea and croissants, we made it into the Catacombs after a 3 hour wait, which was absolutely crazy, shopped a little, made stops at the Louvre, Love Lock bridge where we even bought our own locks, we saw the Arc du Triumph from a distance, saw Notre Dame, had some lunch, exchanged some money and ended with a picnic under the Eiffel Tower. We rode the metro all day and never really got lost. It was absolutely crazy to be honest. We pulled it off, Paris in a day. And while yes we could have spent much more time there and actually gotten in to all of the marvelous places we visited, it was still one of the coolest prettiest most memorable places I've ever been. And while yes I still hope to go back one day and have time to spend in the Louvre and all, for a one day trip with three new friends as a 21-year-old I'd say my trip kicked some major weekend butt.
Exhausted, poor, and still lost in Toledo is how I am now. So hopefully that gives you enough background of what I'm up to! Photos to come later!
So good to hear how well things are going for you....seven weeks will simply fly by...so enjoy it all. love you, gma gries
ReplyDeleteWonderful you were able to get to Paris on your first weekend. Irene sounds so cute and i can just see her wanting the computer and phone :) cute little one year old.
ReplyDeleteThe bread sounds wonderful, i could live on bread alone, just love that carb with some homemade butter of course. Love you muchly, grannnnny